Planting Season...

Just in the last 3 or 4 days, the planting season has exploded in Southern Minnesota. A reminder to pray for farmers, for their safety, for continued awareness of good stewardship practices and an awareness of Sabbath, for good weather for planting, for the combination of sunshine, warmth, and timely rains needed for a good crop. I found this prayer and its affirmations very meaningful. Blessings on the farmers...

A PRAYER FOR THE COUNTRY FAMILY

WE BELIEVE that farming is a noble occupation:
The farm home is a most suitable place for a Christian family;
The good earth is the greatest material gift of God to man.

WE KNOW that in this vocation, country people work closely with God in producing the essential elements of life.

In the special graces and opportunities of this way of life,
farm and country families can most readily give glory to God,
and grow in holiness and happiness.

The earth returns greatest honor to God when through their care and labor, it brings forth an abundance for their family's needs and those of society, for this generation and for those to come.

Let us all pray and hold fast to the spiritual values of the farming vocation and resist the materialism of this age from blinding us to them.

WE PRAY that through God's grace we may have wisdom and strength to grow constantly in the virtues necessary for holy rural living:
Faith and Hope, firmly founded in knowledge of God's wisdom;
Love and Patience with the slow deliberate cycle of seasons and years;
Fortitude and Temperance to give us the strength and balance;
Compassion and Mercy with all who we meet and all that we do.

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Prayer from National Catholic Rural Life Conference